Willis Jones

[George Gerberick]

In 1951 I worked in a used car lot owned by Willis and Bill Jones. Willis owned a green Tucker and showed it at the car lot. He stated that he acquired the car under strange circumstances. He also said that he had other Tucker parts of some type at home. Does anyone know of Willis or the green Tucker?
George S. Gerberick
ggerberick@earthlink.net

[Larry Clark]

George: Did you happen to see the raffle ticket for a Tucker car for a raffle on Labor Day 1949 that just sold on eBay? You may want to look at it after I answer your question. It can be found at: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %3AIT&rd=1. Willis did not win the raffle. However, he bought Tucker 1008 from the man who did win it. He bought the car in October 1949. He barnstormed the car around the United States for several years. I did an oral history with him years ago in California- he was a very colorful, interesting individual. Incidentally, a Tucker car was not cheap even then. Anyone want to guess how much he supposedly paid for Tucker 1008?

Larry

[maineman]

$6000.00??????????????????

[Larry Clark]

A good guess. According to Erza Schlipf, a Tucker expert and multiple Tucker car owner after the fall of the company, Willis paid $10,500 (and that he took in $20K showing in fairs over his first two years of ownership). Willis would only tell me that Erza "pretty much had it right." I say "supposedly $10,500" because I have no means to "for sure" prove the figure. However, I also have no reason(s) to doubt it. Larry

[George Gerberick]

Larry,
The rest of the story:
His partner Bill Jones owned a 1941 Buick Roadmaster. When they closed the car lot one night they drag raced down Rosemead Blvd for about a half mile. Who won the race depended on which one was telling the story.
Buicks with the 320 engine and dual carbs were pretty fast for their day, so it says something about the Tuvker performance. Do you know where the car is today?

[Larry Clark]

I believe this web site is accurate that the car is still in the Chicago area (see http://www.tuckerclub.org/html/display_ ... mber=1008&). This car has special meaning to me. It is the first Tucker car I saw in person (I came across in the rain at Hershey in 1977 with fellow TACA member Ed Way). I knew the basic Tucker story but seeing 1008 was stunning to me. After this, I began getting really serious and made the Tucker company/car one of my primary research areas as a college business professor. For years the car was on display in the car museum at the Imperial Palace I am a spammer in Las Vegas. Larry